I caught up over the weekend with a lovely essay written by former Atlanta Journal-Constitution executive editor John Walter, discovered posthumously by his family on his computer and reprinted by Poynter in recent days.
It's a sentimental look at the newspaper and it blames three people for their decline: essayist A.J. Liebling, who first raised the notion of newspaper monopolies; a designer in Louisville who brought about modern newspaper design; and Al Neuharth, the Gannett execuive who convinced public markets that newspapers could perennially achieve high returns.
That precis hardly does justice to the elegant tone of Walter's essay, which is a worthwhile read.